albums ruined by Sonic Solutions' NoNOISE

You can say that again.It isn't just NR that ruined that remaster,it was the atrocious EQ choices like pushing the bass up to 11 and wiping out the treble.Nasty!

 

The Japanese editions of the Association albums from several years ago....the first two or three albums were No-Noised to death for no apparent reason, which was painfully obvious when the Collector's Choice re-issues were put out without any noise reduction.

 

I don't know if Sonic Solutions, specifically, was used, but they are terrible! The life was sucked right out of them. And to think that I thought they sounded better once upon a time!

 

Squeeze, Greatest Hits

 

Tomorrow remaster... featuring Steve Howe

 

Frank Sinatra Capital albums 1953-1961-No Noise sucked the life right of them!

 

The worst I ever heard were the following 3:
"Islands" King Crimson the Definitive Edition 1st version - the copy of the master tape that EG had at the time was severely damaged and had all sorts of extraneous noises throughout the album. So they were NoNoised out of existence. A terrible phase-shifted sound resulted with severe bass distortion - there must have been heaps of complaints, as the 2nd Definitive Edition had the tape noises back in all their glory. The 30th Anniversary Edition uses the original master tape that Island Records used back in 1971 and sounds great again.
"Live At Leeds" The Who - the DE version totally did the same thing again to the Tommy part of the concert, minus the bass distortion above. Very sad as the performance is incendiary.
In a slightly less obtrusive category, but still awful is what was done to Aqualung in the 25th Anniversary edition. Where did the studio ambience go? It just went!!!

 

Pretty much the entire Van Morrison Warner Bros catalogue. And the current Elton John Rocket remasters.

 

Damn! I did the same thing. And I had ALL of theImport 12" singles and lps. Gee whiz, look! There're all on cd now in better sound!
I will have to say, my original vinyl was probably pretty wore out!

 

The Who "The Kids Are Alright" soundtrack remaster...possibly the worst example of NR that I've ever heard.

 

I think the worst NR I've heard is Naked Eye on the Odds and Sods remaster.

 

That's putting it mildly. The living room sudio ambience of albums like Smiley Smile, Wild Honey and Friends have the life sucked out of them...it's like goimg from a nice living room to a coat closet....dead!

 

Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders twofer of "Wayne Fontana/It's Wayne Fontana." Awful, just plain awful!

 

I vehmently disagree!!! All of those 1990 Beach Boys discs that were NR'd sound positively awesome. There none of the artifacts plaguing other DNR'd CD's. I much prefer them to the 2000 redo's that Linett did not use NR on, and gave a smiley face EQ curve to. (The only exception would be the Pet Sounds mono transfer, which does sound a smidge better on the 2000 disc.)

Derek

 

I think the "Friends/20/20" 1990 disc sounds just fine.

 

It's not the NR that ruins these two, it's the poor choice of master tapes. The NR job done by Mike Jarratt is actually pretty good in comparison with Mr. Mew's work at EMI.

Derek

 

What tracks on the Red and the Blue albums don't come from the master tapes?

 

Technically, all are from master tapes, they just didn't always use the best ones (e.g. they used the Martin remixes for some, the non-single versions for Please Please Me)

Derek

 

I think it's important to clarify....you mean the 1998 "Entertainer of the Century" CDs, right?

The original CDs by Larry Walsh have no No-Noise that I'm aware of.

The original vinyl definitely does not.

 

Yep,the 1998 Bob Norberg ones.

 

Actually, the Capitol CD's of London Town and Speed of Sound do not employ NR. They are quite hissy, actually. The UK Paul McCartney Collection CD's have had NR applied, though.

Really, there is not a good sounding CD of London Town, period. I'd recommend sticking to the LP for that.

As for Speed of Sound, there's the DCC, of course!

 

The worst use of NoNoise (or CEDAR) I have ever heard is on John Lennon Acoustic. The whole disc sounds like it has phases shift problems and was recorded underwater with a blanket thrown over the microphone.

Closely following is the the Bip Bop/Hey Diddle/I Am Your Singer medley on Wingspan. It fades in and out and has so many phase problems and is so muddy that it is actually irritating to listen to.

 

Is there any NoNoise audio jobs that you folks thought were so bad they were funny?Just asking

 

I have original vinyl pressings of Friends and 20/20 that sounds better than that cd.

I know they are first pressings as my Dad has always bought something by a fave band the week if not the very day of release. He still does this. Eventhough he was a teenager when those were released, thankfully he always took good care of his vinyl

 

"Citizen Steely Dan". I suppose it isn't the most horrible usage of CEDAR but the results are awfully cold.

Ed